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About Ron Charest

Ron is a native New Yorker and 22 year Navy veteran. He retired from active duty in 1996 and went on to build a successful post-Navy career in logistics. Ron currently works for a major Government consulting firm based in Washington D.C., and together with his wife Weifang make their home in Northern Virginia.

This past Sunday, a paying passenger was forcibly removed from a United Airlines (UA) flight in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, in the process beaten and his face bloodied by airport security officers removing him. The paying passenger’s crime, the reason for this violent removal from an aircraft after being seated? UA needed the seat so some of their own employees could travel instead.

The President of UA, and lots of otherwise normal people, are currently defending the actions of these security officers. Continue reading →

It’s cherry blossom festival in our nation’s capital this week. Trees that survived the erratic winter are preening their all for hordes of gawking tourists who come from near and far to admire the temporary pink flowers. Meanwhile, chaos continues apiece in the Charest household eclipsed only by the magnitude of chaos in our centers of government power.

All four of my grandparents were immigrants. One, my maternal grandfather, entered the US “illegally.” Both my first and present wives are immigrants. My first wife left the Philippines during the final years of the Marcos dictatorship, at a time when conditions in that country were rapidly deteriorating.

Yesterday our national nightmare started, and today is the first day for American’s to stand up and let the world know that this is not who we are. I cannot get to the Women’s Watch on Washington event, so I’m going to have to do what I can to show my support. Consider this simple post on my bit of Cyberspace as my contribution to the cause.

Not only is today a national holiday celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it also happens to be the last week of the presidency of Barak Obama. On this day of remembrance, I need to share my thoughts on our regretfully too-soon-to-be former President.

Today I’m watching the first snowfall of this season, and coincidentally the first snow of 2017. At least here in Northern Virginia. As luck would have it, today is a Saturday, so I’ve avoided the Mad Max-like horrors of traveling out on our snowy highways. On the flip side, I’m stuck in the house all day and cabin fever strikes quickly.

We’re presently up to about one-half inch, and with any luck, we’ll have Washington, D.C. shut down for a week.

For the first post of the New Year, I just want to wish everyone a Happy New year 2017! Gratuitous New Year’s video on the flip in celebration of having survived this past year while retaining some semblance of sanity.

This is a story about being permanently traumatized by the Christmas song “Jingle Bells.” Actually, it wasn’t so much the song itself, but the events surrounding the playing of “Jingle Bells.” Fair warning; this “Jingle Bells” Christmas story involves topless women and beer but is otherwise considered Family Safe, unless you don’t want your kids to grow up to become sailors. Continue reading →

Winnie and I decided we needed to do something different for Christmas this year. Our Christmases past have normally revolved around either staying at home in quiet celebration, or visiting family. This year, we gave each other a Christmas vacation trip to Puerto Rico.

It’s still difficult for me to process all my emotions from November’s election results. Feelings of dread about what happens next; feelings of loss for what could have been; feelings of disbelief knowing that so many of my fellow Americans voted for a person that represents the worst side of humanity; I’m trying to process all these feelings running on the same track. Underneath all of these is a feeling of deep anger at the people who believed Trump was anything more than a master con artist who says anything he has to, to get what he wants, and does whatever suits his ego.